Expired Film
These pictures are essentially a series of extended looks at parts of my surroundings that seem to be as separate from the world as many of the RIT students can be.
The film I used to take these pictures was from thirty-year-old packs of assorted graphic arts films, many that were not labeled, that I got from a friend. Instead of throwing the film out, I wanted to try to take pictures with it. So I went out and took pictures hoping for the best.
I never really expected any of the images to come out so I had absolutely no expectations. But, once I developed the film and saw it was possible to take pictures with it, I was immediately captivated by the of-another-era quality the film gave the images. There were cracks where the emulsion was separating from the film and spots where moisture or light had seeped in. I realized that I had a unique opportunity to create a body of work that I would probably never be able to create again.
To me, it was important that these pictures were taken of the campus because of the past-like qualities that the film gave the images was very appropriate to the distant and isolated feeling of the campus. When you live on campus, and especially in the dorms, it becomes hard to leave, partly because of the workload and partly because of how isolated the campus is from the outside world. Having spent almost a year living at R.I.T, in the dorms, before I started this project, I had spent most of my days and nights there and I rarely got a chance to leave during the class week. Sometimes I felt like I was living in a bubble.
When I look at the body of work as a whole I see these fragile pictures as time capsules for a part of my life, an important part of my life that was just as fleeting and unpredictable as the film they were shot on.